Rotary Rocket Co

Redwood Shores-based Rotary Rocket Co. said it has raised $6 million to support development of a reusable space launch vehicle, including an undisclosed amount from Tom Clancy. Closely held Rotary said the author of "The Hunt for Red October" is also joining its board. Known as the Roton, the vehicle is designed to take off like a traditional rocket, then use rotors, similar to a helicopter, to land after deploying its payload so the vehicle can be reused. Test launches are set for 1999.

The rocket's unveiling inevitably summoned memories of the space program's heyday: the dramatic theme music from "2001--A Space Odyssey," billowing smoke from fog machines, the chiseled good looks of test pilots strolling alongside, and the backdrop of a giant American flag. "Welcome to the revolution," intoned the announcer. But this wasn't a NASA event. There was no Saturn V. It was a slick production staged by the Rotary Rocket Co.

The rocket's unveiling inevitably summoned memories of the space program's heyday: the dramatic theme music from "2001--A Space Odyssey," billowing smoke from fog machines, the chiseled good looks of test pilots strolling alongside, and the backdrop of a giant American flag. "Welcome to the revolution," intoned the announcer. But this wasn't a NASA event. There was no Saturn V. It was a slick production staged by the Rotary Rocket Co.

Rotary Rocket Co. of Redwood Shores, Calif., is kicking up dust in the desert with construction of its $5.5-million rocket-building and launching facilities at the Mojave Airport. The company, which counts best-selling author Tom Clancy among its investors, recently celebrated its formal groundbreaking and plans to build and launch an all-composite reusable rocket, the Roton, from the site.

Rotary Rocket Co. of Redwood Shores, Calif., is kicking up dust in the desert with construction of its $5.5-million rocket-building and launching facilities at the Mojave Airport. The company, which counts best-selling author Tom Clancy among its investors, recently celebrated its formal groundbreaking and plans to build and launch an all-composite reusable rocket, the Roton, from the site.

The property of a company based at the Mojave Airport that planned to build a reusable spaceship and included writer Tom Clancy as an investor, was seized by Kern County for failure to pay property taxes. The Rotary Rocket Co. property and other company assets, including a low-altitude test craft described as looking like a six-story traffic cone sprouting helicopter blades, will be put up for auction Jan. 10.

July 25, 1999 | PRESTON LERNER, Preston Lerner last wrote about Formula One race fans for the magazine

Long derelict, their institutional paint faded by the Southern California sun, the buildings dot the Burbank landscape like colossal relics of an age when bigger was better and there seemed to be no end to America's industrial might.

Two hours before launch, the biggest problem seems to be with the VCR. It won't record right, or something silly like that, but that's OK. Far, far worse things could be going wrong in the hours before a tiny, home-built airplane is set to fly a mile straight up into the air using two small honest-to-God, send-a-man-to-the-moon, fire-out-the-back rockets on a Thursday morning in the middle of the desert.

Redwood Shores-based Rotary Rocket Co. said it has raised $6 million to support development of a reusable space launch vehicle, including an undisclosed amount from Tom Clancy. Closely held Rotary said the author of "The Hunt for Red October" is also joining its board. Known as the Roton, the vehicle is designed to take off like a traditional rocket, then use rotors, similar to a helicopter, to land after deploying its payload so the vehicle can be reused. Test launches are set for 1999.